Method and system for providing a virtual job market

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method for providing a virtual job market on a network comprising an application server and clients and/or electronic message systems allowing to input and output information, wherein the method comprises the following steps: providing primary dimensions information on industries, career levels and functional areas; providing secondary dimensions information on salary ranges and/or geo-data and/or educational information and/or languages and/or special expertises, entering the primary and secondary dimensions information in a three dimensional data base on the application server; collecting information chunks of open jobs and candidate profiles, and placing the information chunks in a distinct cell or number of cells in the three dimensional database. Further, the present invention relates to a system for providing a virtual job market on a network comprising an application server and clients and/or electronic message systems including at least a first database comprising candidate profiles, a second database comprising salary information and a third database comprising job information, wherein the information available in the three databases is matched in a three dimensional database model.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and a system for providing avirtual job market on a computer network, preferably on the internet.For providing such a virtual job market, a three dimensional databasemodel is generated.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Commonly, the job market is represented by classified adds—in print oron the internet—onto which a job seeker is reacting or alternatively byHuman Recourses recruiters which are placing candidates in certainpositions. Recently, virtual job market places were introduced.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,964 B1 describes a method for recruiting personnelfor a business entity including a plurality of distinct business unitseach having individual hiring requirements, wherein at least some of thedistinct business units' hiring requirements compete for commonapplicants, the method including the steps of: entering informationrelated to a plurality of hiring needs, each of the plurality of hiringneeds being respectively associated with one of the plurality ofdistinct business units, and information related to a plurality ofcandidates into a database, respectively; automaticallycross-referencing the information related to the plurality of hiringneeds with the information related to the plurality of candidates toidentify candidates selected the plurality of candidates who satisfyentered information indicative of hiring needs; and, determining whichof the identified candidates should be offered a job associated with thehiring needs; wherein, when it is determined that one of the identifiedcandidates should be offered more than one job as determined by thehiring needs, all jobs pertinent to the one of the associated candidatesare offered substantially simultaneously to the one of the identifiedcandidates.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,194 B1 describes an apparatus and method forproviding recruitment information, including a memory device for storinginformation regarding at least one of a job opening, a position, anassignment, a contract, and a project, and information regarding a jobsearch request, a processing device for processing information regardingthe job search request upon a detection of an occurrence of a searchingevent, wherein the processing device utilizes information regarding theat least one of a job opening, a position, an assignment, a contract,and a project, stored in the memory device, and further wherein theprocessing device generates a message containing information regardingat least one of a job opening, a position, an assignment, a contract,and a project, wherein the message is responsive to the job searchrequest, and a transmitter for transmitting the message to acommunication device associated with an individual in real-time.

WO 01/82181 A2 describes a method and system generating referrals forjob positions based upon virtual communities comprised of membersrelevant to the job positions. This disclosure includes three primarymethodical tools. The first tool implements a job recruiting toolkit.The second tool implements a method of generating referrals based upon avirtual community of people who relate to the job description. The thirdtool implements an enterprise recruitment toolkit.

A major drawback of the existing systems is the lack of additionalinformation regarding industries, career levels and functional areas.Also, in general no salary ranges, etc. are provided for certain jobs.

It is one object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks ofthe prior art and to provide a virtual job market place superior toexisting methods and technologies.

The method according to claim 1 and the system according to claim 6 ofthe present invention solve this object and provide a virtual job marketplace superior to existing methods and technologies. It addressesinefficiencies in the labour market created by inappropriate definitionof the labour market and incomplete construction of existing systems.

The present invention involves the following features:

-   -   1. Creation of a complete marketplace: combination of labour        demand, labour supply and a pricing mechanism (salary        information on every job seeker and every job), establishing        basic elements of a market place within one closed data system.        Note: existing technologies on job markets exclude salary, which        in turn creates a demand/supply match without pricing        information. A market place without a pricing mechanism cannot        create clearance with a period and suffers from imperfect        information.    -   2. Unique structure of the labour market: Combining generally        known concepts to a unique combination of dimensions creates a        far more complex marketplace, yet easy to understand and more        relevant for all participants.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A comprehensive, distinct, and scalable aggregation of industries andsub-segments as provided by the invention creates a complete virtual jobmarket place of an entire economy. It analyzes and allocates demand andsupply of human resource into distinct “commodity markets” and/orsegments of the labour market. The secondary dimensions qualify eachindividual job or profile within this marketplace with the relevantinformation. In this context the primary dimensions create efficient jobmarketplaces. The secondary dimensions match demand and supply along thequalitative features and provide the information for more efficientmarket clearance. This combination is unique, significantly more complexand processes richer data than existing technologies. Yet, due to the“standard nature” of each dimension it is intuitively to understand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a simplified sketch of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 shows a simplified sketch of a job marketplace with uniquetaxonomy;

FIG. 3 shows a simplified sketch of machine-to-machine interfaces;

FIG. 4 shows a simplified sketch of one example of the architecture thatmay be used for the application;

FIG. 5 shows a simplified sketch of a matching process used in anotherpreferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention integrates the three defining factors of a market:(A) demand (for labour), (B) supply (of labour) and (C) a pricingmechanism which is provided by the invention. The pricing element, inparticular, has traditionally been left out of data-driven labour marketapplications. The invention creates systems having (i) variousfunctions, (ii) efficient market, and integrates them with (iii)increased transparency and (iv) reduced information pathology

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which willbe described as follows.

(A) Demand (Examples):

-   -   (1)/(2) HR Departments, independent recruiters and head-hunters        can post job openings according to the marketplace taxonomy (see        2.)    -   (3) Direct job aggregation from company websites through        xml-interface, manual and/or crawler supported input of job data        provided on company career websites    -   (4) Head-hunters searching for relevant individuals. Search        covers existing job position, career history and career goals

(B) Supply (Examples)

-   -   (5) Individuals can search job database    -   (6) Individuals define next career steps and receive matching        openings    -   (7) Individuals can define career profile/CV and set        confidentiality levels to be found by head-hunters

(C) Pricing—Salary Information (Examples)

-   -   (8)/(10) A firm or a head-hunter leave salary range by posting        an opening    -   (9) A firm provides an entire salary matrix for all internal        levels and all functions (i.e. sales, finance etc.)    -   (10) An individual provides his/her existing salary range and        current position    -   (11) An individual provides his/her desired salary range and        desired position

The invention organizes data on the job market along the followingprimary and secondary dimensions:

Primary Dimensions:

-   -   (1) industries    -   (2) career levels    -   (3) functional areas

Secondary Dimensions:

-   -   (4) salary ranges    -   (5) geo-data (country, city, ZIP code, IP address, GPS data, GSM        information)    -   (6) educational information    -   (7) languages    -   (8) special expertises

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, the invention collects the followinginformation chunks (jobs/candidate profiles) and places them in adistinct cell or number of cells.

Information Chunks (Jobs/Candidate Profiles)

-   -   (D) open jobs, which are determined by one distinct cell    -   (E) candidate profiles, which are a sequence of cells determined        by a candidates past jobs, current job and desired future job

In the system according to the present invention, the primary dimensionsdetermine the structure of the data repository and place the informationchunks (jobs and candidate profiles) in the proper position in thevirtual job market established in the database. The secondary dimensionsdetermine the quality of the information chunks. They enable a rankingof competing information chunks in the same job market segment. Forexample multiple jobs or multiple candidate profiles are placed in thesame sub-segment of the virtual job market place, i.e. level—(e.g.,“senior professional”), function (e.g., “sales”), and industry (e.g,‘book publishing”). The secondary dimensions (e.g, salary range, specialexpertise etc.) qualify them in a fashion that generates a clear-cutmatching between demand and supply.

The primary dimensions determine the relevant marketplace within thesystem and distinctly position the job and candidate profile at theappropriate place in the system so that demand and supply can meet. Bydoing so the model generates a human resource commodity and allocates itto relevant “commodities markets” and/or job market segments. By placingpricing information to the commodity it enables a complete marketplace.

Each of the primary dimensions are intuitive to understand and relate tocommon understanding and concept adopted by economic theory as well aspractice. The innovative aspects of the invention involve thecombination of the three dimensions to deliver a contingent system tocover the job market.

(1) Industries and Sub-Segments

The first innovation is to analyse the job market in a very granularfashion according to industries and sub-segments of industries. This iscrucial as job market competition by and large takes place as a functionof the competition of firms in the markets for products and services.Special skills, know how, contacts and other resources acquired in avery specific industry segment strongly determine the returns acandidate can yield on the job market. This analysis will be conductedautomatically as long as the required information is pre-processedaccording to the systems input rules.

-   -   Industries are segmented in multiple levels: 4 levels and        maximum 10 entries per level, e.g.:    -   0000 Main Industry 1 (i.e. services)        -   0100 Segment 1 Level 2 (i.e. media)            -   0110 Segment 1 Level 3 (i.e. print publishing)                -   0111 Segment 1 Level 4 (i.e. book publishing)                -   0112 Segment 2 Level 4 (i.e. trade magazine                    publishing)                -   0113 Segment 3 Level 4 (i.e. newspaper publishing)                -   0114 Segment 4 Level 4 (i.e. special interest                    magazine publishing)                -   0115 Segment 5 Level 4 (i.e. general interest                    magazine publishing)                -   And so forth            -   0120 Segment 2 Level 3 (i.e. Music)            -   0130 Segment 3 Level 3 (i.e. TV)            -   and so forth        -   0200 Segment 2 Level 1 (i.e. Consulting)        -   0300 Segment 3 Level 1 (i.e. Financial Services)        -   and so forth    -   1000 Main Industry 2    -   2000 Main Industry 3    -   and so forth

(2) Career Levels

Career Levels give an abstract representation of hierarchy, which existsin every company. To apply this invention the career levels should becustomized depending on the target market. i.e. in the currentapplication the following levels are distinguished for a market of veryqualified white collar professionals and executives:

-   -   executive management midsized and large companies    -   executive management small companies    -   business unit mgmt    -   senior management    -   management    -   senior professional    -   professional    -   junior professional/entry level

(3) Functional Areas

Functional areas determine in which value-creating part of firm—or“where in the value chain”—a job is positioned. The concept of the valuechain is generally accepted to describe all sorts of businesses and itsinternal functional organization, i.e. sales, research, development,production etc. Today the taxonomy of the value chain is understoodcommon sensually in developed economies.

For each industry the combination of 2-career levels and 3-functionsestablishes a matrix. Within this matrix various salary data can becalculated, such as salary ranges or average mid-points. In thefollowing example, table 1, average mid-points are calculated.

TABLE 1 Industry: Segment 0000 Career Level Executive Board Entry SeniorSenior Business Unit medium/large Executive Board Level ProfessionalProfessional Manager Manager Manager company) (small company) Function 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 Management 1 150 150 200 Planing, Controlling 3 40 50 6590 120 140 PR 12 35 47 60 80 100 120 Finance, Accounting 4 40 55 70 90120 140 Legal 5 40 55 70 90 120 140 HR 6 35 45 60 80 100 120Administration 7 35 45 60 80 100 120 IT, Telecom 13 45 55 70 90 120 140Purchasing, Logistics 8 40 55 70 90 120 140 Customer Support 15 35 40 5565 85 100 Production 9 45 60 70 90 110 130 Consulting 16 45 60 70 90 120140 Design 17 45 55 65 80 110 130 Documentation 18 45 55 65 90 110 130R&D 14 45 60 75 90 120 140 Sales 10 40 60 75 90 150 180 Marketing 11 4555 70 90 120 140 Strategy, M&A 2 55 70 90 120 150 200

The following secondary dimensions provide for job market-specificqualification of information chunks (e.g., open jobs, candidateprofiles). By adding these informational dimensions, the human resourcecommodity allocated to a sub-segment of the labour market gets“de-commoditized” for the specific sub-segment of the labour market byadding qualitative information. This is important to assess the yield(salary potential) a specific job or candidate has in the relevanttarget market.

(4) Salary Ranges

Salary ranges, representative for a market can be set up, whereasoverlapping ranges created a perception, which prevents users fromoverstating their current salary as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 id no label min_salary max_salary - current salary - 13 250.000-60.000 EUR 50000 60000 1 3 55.000-65.000 EUR 55000 65000 2 460.000-70.000 EUR 60000 70000 3 5 65.000-75.000 EUR 65000 75000 4 670.000-80.000 EUR 70000 80000 5 7 75.000-85.000 EUR 75000 85000 6 880.000-90.000 EUR 80000 90000 7 9 85.000-105.000 EUR 85000 105000 8 1090.000-110.000 EUR 90000 110000 9 11 100.000-130.000 EUR 100000 13000010 12 120.000-150.000 EUR 120000 150000 11 13 >150.000 EUR 150000 20000012 14 >200.000 EUR 200000 -desired salary/job posting salaries 81 >60.000 EUR 60000 70000 1 2 >70.000 EUR 70000 80000 2 3 >80.000 EUR80000 90000 3 4 >90.000 EUR 90000 100000 4 5 >100.000 EUR 100000 1200005 6 >120.000 EUR 120000 150000 6 7 >150.000 EUR 150000 200000 78 >200.000 EUR 200000

(5) Geodata (Country, City, ZIP Code)

Each open job or current/past job in a candidate profile needs to bedefined geographically, where the global ZIP code systems provides asufficiently rich system

(6) Educational Information

Educational information is defined along two data dimension: (i) studymajor, (ii) highest degree per major.

(7) Languages

Language information is defined along two data dimension: (i) language(ii) level of proficiency

(8) Special Expertises

In this field, certain free text data entry may be allowed to permitspecial expertise to be noted

In a preferred embodiment, the databases themselves are maintained on anApplication Server which is accessed by the stated demand- orsupply-side users. Information is input, e.g. using pull-down menus orfree-text data entry, where permitted. The application servercalculates, based on the information input by the user, a specific jobposition within the matrix and correlates specific pricing information,which may include salary ranges, median salary, etc.

The present invention may be used with Internet access technologies.This covers end user interfaces to the system of the present inventionas well as machine-to-machine interfaces. Alternatively other networksolutions may be used.

The end user interfaces may be browser-based, whereas the inventionsupports both desktop/laptop and mobile browsers. In this case the IPaddress information may be used as geo-data information. Messaginginterfaces may support e-mail or SMS. When using mobile phones asinterface, the available GSM or GPS position information may be used asgeo-data information. The user interface related geo-data informationmay be used to verify the geo-data information provided by a jobcandidate and/or as access control means. Alternatively, other systems,such as voice-activated telephone services, may be used as interface.

As shown in FIG. 3, machine-to-machine interfaces may be used with API'sfor xml-feeds or crawlers that automatically access end user interfacesof web sites and pull data.

One example of the architecture of that may be used for the applicationis described in FIG. 4.

The positions within the job matrix may be limited to specifiedcategories (e.g., 250 three-dimensional matrix positions/clusters),whereupon each position inquiry is forced into these positions. Thisallows the precise definition of each position and provides a morereliable specification of the provision, and therefore a more reliablepricing. It would also avoid double postings, making it less likely thatthe two different positions could define the same job.

Each job being accessible via system gets an individual salary-benchmarkinformation (in the following: SBI). For postings entered directly by HRrepresentatives of a company or by Head hunters, the SBI is created bythe posting person himself, selecting the appropriate SBI level out of aproposed range-list. For postings being collected and categorised bysystems to be accessible to the creators corporate website or hiscommissaries, the SBI is calculated automatically out of the system. Thecalculation of the SBI follows a process of job-categorisation alongprimary dimensions including industry, function, career level andsecondary dimension like geographical factor (i.e. CIP code) or companysize. Data sources of the salary database are:

1. external empirical information

-   -   surveys and data of national statistic offices (distribution of        income, GDP per capita etc.)    -   agencies providing salary information    -   Corporate compensation information        2. internal information:    -   End user of the system insert salary information by    -   (a) Posting a job (HR departments or recruiters) and attaching        salary information along with the primary and secondary        dimensions applicable to a job.    -   (b) inserting candidate profile information, where an end user        fills out its CV data and attaches a salary information to its        current position, which is coded with the primary and secondary        dimensions applicable to the respective job. (note: With every        registration to the system of the present invention, the user        has to select the annual gross-earnings of his last years        profession out of a suggestions list offering defined ranges of        earnings. When filling in an individual profile on the        system—the system gathers the information of the current        position corresponding to the date of sign-up including the        dimensions of industry, function, career level and geographical        factor of the individual position.)

The permanent analysis of all gathered user-information enables thesystem to provide an automatic and permanent adjustment of allsalary-matrix information. Calculation algorithms used are based onstatistical models as well as on averaging.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention involves a socalled matching process. The matching process provides a selection ofrelevant positions for a candidate, that is superior to the results of asearch for a given list of criteria. This is shown in FIG. 5.

As a prerequisite, a candidate provides information about the positions,he/she is interested in by

-   -   describing one or more career goals    -   A minimum information of at least one of career level or salary        expectations and one of targeted industries or functional area        must be provided.    -   Besides this information additional data like the names of        companies the candidate is interested in, a list of expertises a        candidate seeks to use, a list of countries and an area defined        by a location and distance can be provided depending on the        preferences of the candidate.    -   describing his/her job history    -   A candidate describes his professional experience by providing        data on the positions he/she worked at. The system therefore        knows about past functions and industries the candidates is        experienced in.    -   describing general expertises and skills    -   A candidate lists special expert skills that makes him stand out        from other candidates.    -   describing her/his education    -   describing the list of languages she/he is familiar with

For positions a list of classifications is maintained:

-   -   the industry    -   the functional area    -   career level    -   the salary benchmark for the position    -   the company    -   the location    -   required languages    -   required education    -   the description of the position

The matching process scores each position held in the system bycomparing it's classification to the candidates direct (by career goal)and indirect (by the description of his/her history) description of thepositions she/he is interested in. Matching is done for each career goalof the user independently.

Scoring uses a configurable system of weighting factors.

Weighting factors reflect the relative importance of the enteredcriteria.

Factors for industries and functions further depend on the valuesprovided: the relative weight for industry matches and function matchesdepends on the functions in question, since some functions allow foreasily changing the industry while others don't.

Weighting factors also distinguish between data provided in the careergoal and data provided in the history of a candidate since the former ismore relevant for the results a user seeks.

Depending on the input provided, a maximum score is calculated and athreshold is derived from this maximum score.

The dynamic calculation of the maximum and threshold scores allows toadapt the system to different degrees of user input. While the systemworks best for detailed career goals and history data, results areprovided for brief goals with minimum input and no job history as well.

All positions that qualify for a score larger than the threshold areconsidered a match. Within all matches the score provides a rankingcriterion. A larger score means a better fit to the candidatesinterests.

The matching is implemented as a search for any of the informationprovided by the user using a full text index of the positions containingall information on the positions. Thus all positions that do not haveany overlap with the candidates matching criteria, that is positionsthat have a score of 0, are excluded from the matching process from thebeginning.

All other positions that fit at least one criteria are scored in thesense described above. Criteria—such as location and distance—thatcannot be searched on a full text index, is implemented by filtering theresult and modifying the score appropriately.

Finally the result list is filtered by removing all results having ascore less than the required threshold score.

Matching provides results that are superior to the results of searchinga number of criteria provided by the user as

-   -   the results of such a search are included in the matching result        perfect matches will have the highest score and occur first,        when sorting by score    -   matching provides results that fail to fulfil all criteria but        still are close to the characteristics a user searches for.        These matches are likely to be relevant to the user as well.    -   This allows to see chances in the proximity of the precise goal        definition that would be invisible else.    -   This is especially helpful for users where no perfect matches        exist, that is users that would get an empty result in the case        of a simple search.

Matching thus provides sophisticated means to enable the user to findrelevant positions.

Although the invention has been described and pictured in a preferredform with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that thepresent disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way ofexample, and that numerous changes in the details of construction andcombination and arrangement of parts may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

1. Method for providing a virtual job market on a network comprising anapplication server and clients and/or electronic message systemsallowing to input and output information, wherein the method comprisesthe following steps: a) Providing primary dimensions information onindustries, career levels and functional areas; b) Providing secondarydimensions information on salary ranges and/or geo-data and/oreducational information and/or languages and/or special expertises, c)Entering the primary and secondary dimensions information in a threedimensional data base on the application server; d) Collectinginformation chunks of open jobs and candidate profiles, and e) Placingthe information chunks in a distinct cell or number of cells in thethree dimensional database.
 2. Method according to claim 1 comprisingthe additional step of segmenting the primary dimensions in multiplelevels.
 3. Method according to one of the preceding claims comprisingthe additional step of automatically pricing each new job position basedon a comparison to a pricing database or calculating pricing informationeach time a person makes a pricing request.
 4. Method according to oneof the preceding claims comprising the additional step of selection ofrelevant positions for a candidate, that is superior to the results of asearch for a given list of criteria.
 5. A computer program comprisingcomputer executable program code for enabling the computer to carry outa method according to one of the claims 1 through
 4. 6. System forproviding a virtual job market on a network comprising an applicationserver and clients and/or electronic message systems including at leasta first database comprising candidate profiles, a second databasecomprising salary information and a third database comprising jobinformation, wherein the information available in the three databases ismatched in a three dimensional database model.
 7. System according toclaim 6, wherein an application is provided for searching the databaseinformation and ranking it according to matching rules.
 8. Systemaccording to claim 6, wherein an application for electronic messagingcommunication is comprised in the system for receiving electronic jobrequests and/or automatically contacting a job candidate if a matchingposition was found.
 9. System according to any of the preceding claims,wherein the system comprises an interface for entering the respectivecandidate information and/or placing search queries.
 10. Systemaccording to any of the preceding claims, wherein the system comprisesverification means for verifying information provided by job candidateswith respect to geographic position and/or industry and/or current jobposition and/or current wage and/or other relevant information.